


In My Dreams Began To Creep

by andymcnope



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Drabble, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-20
Updated: 2014-02-20
Packaged: 2018-01-13 05:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1213744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andymcnope/pseuds/andymcnope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She doesn't feel caged around Oliver.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In My Dreams Began To Creep

Sara is six when her father brings the canary home, and shows her how to feed it and how to cover its cage at night so it knows to go to sleep. It never helps, and the bird chirps day and night but she doesn't mind.

She is ten when she hears the change in the canary’s song. 

“I think maybe I should set her free,” she tells Laurel one day. “I don’t think she’s happy anymore.”

Laurel drops her books on the coffee table, and gets up from her spot on the couch to examine the bird. “Don’t be silly, Sara. She’s a pet bird. Now cover her cage, the sun has gone down, and I really need to study for this test.”

Two weeks later, Sara comes home to an empty cage and her father holding a bird funeral in their backyard. She wishes she’d opened the cage when she could have.

It’s the first time Sara faces death, but it won’t be her last.

*

Sara is seventeen when she hears the change in the song again. 

The adrenaline high hits the right spot, and she runs and she runs and she runs, stolen merchandise gripped tight in her fingers, wind blowing through her hair. 

It’s not until the metal door of the SCPD holding cell slams shut that she realizes she’s built her own cage.

Her father bails her out two hours later. Her record is clean, he tells her, but she knows he paid a price. 

She doesn’t understand how honor works yet, but she will.

*

Sara knows many cages between Ivo’s freighter and the island. 

Nyssa’s arms don’t feel like cages, and Sara finds refuge in them. 

Delicate but strong fingers run over Sara’s bruises each night; there is never a shortage of multi-colored mottled skin thanks to the rigorous training. Her lips whisper against Sara’s ear the arabic words for each place she touches.

Ta-er al-Sahfer, Nyssa chants when she’s done, repeating the syllables one by one until Sara can repeat them as well, a reverent hymn between them.

It’s not until two years later that Sara realizes the worst cages are the ones you can’t see but can only feel.

*

She doesn't feel caged around Oliver. 

He sleeps with the window open when she stays the night; on those occasions, his feet touch hers as they fall asleep, but he never pulls her too close. They never discuss the times she leaves before the sun comes up, and he’s always glad when she’s still there when he wakes up.

It isn't until Felicity is taken that Sara understands that her relationship with Oliver is like the sheet she used to cover the birdcage. They do what they do in the cover of night, singing their song because they share the same tune.

Felicity is like the sunlight that streams in to remind them of the real world out there.

Oliver is injured when they find her, so Diggle has to carry their friend out. She is safe, but Oliver's arm is broken. Sara tends to his injuries when they get back to the foundry, a makeshift splint for his arm and a her hands cupping his head as she presses her forehead to his.

"Go to her," she whispers. "She needs you. You need her."

She kisses him one last time before she walks away, and goes on a much needed vacation.

This time when she comes home two weeks later, there is no funeral. 

She stops by Oliver's place first. Perched on his windowsill in the darkness, she watches as Oliver trains with different one-handed weapons, arm in a loose sling and cursing as he tests each one. Felicity sits on his couch, wearing one of his t-shirts and tapping away on her tablet. Sara can barely make out some words, but they're of encouragement and reassurance.

Sara doesn't look back as she walks away, feeling more freedom than ever before.

the end

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Florence + the Machine's "Bird Song"


End file.
